Tony Northrup of popular YouTube channel ‘Learn the Art & Science of Photography with Chelsea & Tony' has put the Samsung NX1, Panasonic GH4 and Sony A7s to a side-by-side test shooting the same subject – Tony Northrup – at the same time.

Walking or still, Tony Northrup is photogenic and he knows his cinematography and stills photography cameras, lenses and shooting techniques. As you might expect, none of these three hybrid mirrorless proved to be the perfect video-plus-stills-camera. They all have their strengths and weaknesses.

I won’t steal Mr Northrup’s thunder by restating the content of this very useful and entertaining video but I will say that there were some surprises. The Samsung NX1, claimed by its makers to be an excellent low-light stills camera, proved far less adept at video in low light. Its autofocusing abilities, however, turned out to be far, far better than those of the Panasonic GH4 and the Sony A7s.

The Panasonic, to my mind, proved to be the best all-rounder and delivered better comparative results than I expected in high ISO, low-light shooting. And of course there is the benefit of so many Micro Four Thirds lenses new, used and in development while the other two suffer from optics that are too few or too costly.

If ultra-high ISO videography, the gradability of a logarithmic picture style and the ability to shoot in conditions too dark for the human eye is your thing, then the Sony A7s is the clear winner, as many others have shown time and again with some truly brilliant night movies. The downside though is the need to tote an Atomos Shogun recorder/monitor to record 4K whereas the other two record 4K onboard onto SD cards.

I watched this video after downloading it in all its 4K glory using iSkysoft iMedia Convertor Deluxe for Mac, my favorite movie downloader-cum-convertor, as our local broadband is, well, not really broadband as such. I recommend you view it in 4K too to get the full benefit of Mr Northrup’s insights.
[bctt tweet=”Tony Northrup compares video abilities of Sony A7s, Panasonic GH4 & Samsung NX1 4K cameras.”]

Karin is a documentary moviemaker, journalist, photographer and teacher who conceived and cofounded an influential, globally-read, Australian magazine of contemporary art, culture and photography. While based in Europe, contributing to the magazine and working in advertising, she visualised a future telling the same sorts of stories with a movie camera and audio recorder. Now back in her home base in Sydney, Karin is pursuing her goal of becoming an independent, one-person, backpack multimedia journalist and documentary moviemaker. Mentorless and un-filmschooled, she is constantly learning and sharpening up her skill set.

Comments

Thanks for excellent review. Very helpful. I learned a lot. The amazing focus capability of the nx1 makes this the next camera for filmmaking I will buy. Any recommendations on nikon adapters as I have a number of good nikon lenses.